Complete HarpWeek Biography:Benjamin Butler, U.S. representative and Union
general, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and graduated from Waterville
College (now Colby College) in 1838. After admission to the Massachusetts bar in
1840, he began a successful practice in Lowell, gaining a widespread reputation
as a talented trial lawyer. Active in the Democratic party, he served one term
as state representative in 1853, one term as state senator in 1858, and ran
unsuccessfully for governor in 1859. The following year, he supported John
Breckinridge, the Southern Democrat, for president and again ran unsuccessfully
for governor, this time on the ticket of the Breckinridge faction.

When the Civil War began, though, Butler was
quick to volunteer his services to the Union cause. A brigadier-general of the
Massachusetts militia, he led forces that occupied Baltimore unopposed and, as a
major-general, captured Forts Hatteras and Clark in North Carolina. He coined
the term "contraband" to designate escaped slaves who crossed Union
lines.

Butlerís most famous (or infamous) connection
with the war was his controversial tenure as commander of the occupation forces
in New Orleans in 1862. He seized the posh St. Charles Hotel as his initial
headquarters, confiscated $800,000 from the Dutch consulate (which he insisted
had been intended for purchase of Confederate war supplies), hanged a man for
taking a Union flag down from a flagpole, and inflicted other strictures that
caused New Orleans residents to label him "Beast," "Brute,"
and "Spoons" (for his alleged tendency to steal silverware). The
regulation that raised the most ire was his "Woman Order" which
stipulated that women who insulted Union soldiers would be treated as
prostitutes. In December he was replaced by General Nathaniel Banks.

In late 1863 Butler was given the command of the
Department of Virginia and North Carolina. In October 1864 he was sent to New
York City to prevent or control election riots. Criticized for his inability in
the field (Grant accused him of getting "bottled up"óanother
nickname that stuck), Butler retired from the army and returned to Massachusetts
in December 1864.

After the war, Butler returned to Congress as a
Republican, serving from 1867 to 1875 and from 1877 to 1879. He enthusiastically
backed the Radical Reconstruction policies of the Congressional Republicans. A
vociferous, unrelenting critic of President Johnson, he authored the tenth
article of impeachment aimed at the Presidentís verbal attacks on Congress. At
the suggestion of the ailing Thaddeus Stevens, Butler became the lead House
prosecutor at Johnsonís removal trial in the Senate. The Massachusetts
Congressmanís poor performance, however, has often been cited as a factor in
Johnsonís acquittal.

Butler was an almost perennial candidate for
governor of Massachusetts, running unsuccessfully in 1871, 1873, 1874, 1878, and
1879, before being elected in 1882. In his final bid for office, he was the
Presidential nominee of the Greenback-Labor and Anti-Monopoly parties in 1884,
polling less than 2% of the popular vote. Butler died in Washington, D.C.